Induction

The term agnostic was fittingly coined by the 19th-century British scientist Thomas H. Huxley, who believed that only material phenomena were objects of exact knowledge. He made up the word from the prefix a-, meaning “without, not,” as in amoral, and the noun Gnostic. Gnostic is related to the Greek word gn?, “knowledge,” which was used by early Christian writers to mean “higher, esoteric knowledge of spiritual things”; hence, Gnostic referred to those with such knowledge. In coining the term agnostic, Huxley was considering as “Gnostics” a group of his fellow intellectuals—“ists,” as he called them— who had eagerly embraced various doctrines or theories that explained the world to their satisfaction. Because he was a “man without a rag of a label to cover himself with,” Huxley coined the term agnostic for himself, its first published use being in 1870.

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Sign 1/11/2013

Verse:
〖詩曰〗上接不穩,下接不和,相纏相擾,平地風波。
Explanation:
〖簽釋〗這簽詩就象一道謎主,讓人時猜不透。上接不穩,下接不和象徵的字為"尖"。這個字由小和大組成,小在上,上接不穩,大在下方,下接當然不和,不平衡。尖的形狀是上小下大,這也是平地起風波的原因。
多與少,長與短,小與本身就是不平衡,若小者自甘小,不爭多少與長短,那也相安無事;若大者能讓其小,分長予短,分多予少,也不會相纏擾。看來,各不相讓,風波難免。這將是一場"大人"與"小人"的格鬥,挑戰者是"小人"的一方。這有如以下的幾種人際關係:父母與子女,師生,上級與下屬,老闆與雇員,長官與士兵,兄與弟,姐與妹,妻子與丈夫,正妻與外妻,妻與妾等等,簽詩沒暗示任何一方在這場風波中的勝負,只是告這主要矛盾來源,讓你自己開動腦筋去擺平。去渡過一段動盪的歲月。